I have found that as I get older more and more musicians
that I admire are passing away. Whilst this is to be expected and happens in
everyday life I still feel incredibly sad when a musician that I admire passes
away no matter in many cases that I have never met them.
In the case of Peter Banks I was lucky to meet him and
remain in contact with him until his death last week at the age of 65. The
details of his death are not known to me and if I am honest that is not the
important thing; it is however dreadfully sad that he has died at a relatively
young age.
I first became aware of Peter when the first Flash album
came out in 1972. I was not aware when I got the first Flash album that peter
had indeed been a member of Yes in fact a founder member and had played in a
band with Chris Squire called The Syn and also the pre Yes band Mabel Greer’s Toyshop”.
I read about that once I started to dig a little deeper.
I first met Peter personally when the MD of the record
company that had released the Yes album “Something’s Coming invited me down to
London to interview Peter about the album. We met up at the appointed time to
find that the record company offices were closed so we went to the pub and had
a chat. I was immediately impressed with Peter’s knowledge of music and also
his sense of humour.
When we finally got back to the office we recorded the
interview the transcript of which will be in my forthcoming book of interviews
with the various and many members of Yes. Peter was very honest about the album
and also brutally honest about the lo fi nature of the album but explained that
in those days no one really considered recording sessions that important and
time was of the essence and you rarely had chance to listen to what you had
recorded and once recorded it would be broadcast and that was basically it.
This dissatisfaction also extended to the first two Yes albums and like the BBC sessions Peter admitted that
he always heard the mistakes. He did however concede that the albums were what
they were and overall he thought they were good
Some of the broadcasts contained on the album sounded very
raw and Peter explained that he had recorded them himself “off air” hence the
raw quality to the recording. For many Yes fans however these recordings were
of immense importance as the early days of the band had only previously been
represented by the two studio albums Yes and Time And A Word.
The conversation continued and Peter was happy to talk about Flash and his solo career. Following that meeting we remained in touch and met up occasionally, notably in late 1999 when Geoff Downes got married. We spoke on the phone and we were trying to arrange a time to talk about the pre Yes days and the first two Yes albums for the Book but Peter was very focused on the recording he was doing which presumably would have formed the basis for his next album. He was keen to talk to me however and I was hopeful that we could arrange something. Sadly that was not to be.
Peter seemed to be at least by the press regarded as the
“Lost” yes man however the fan base certainly did not regard Peter as lost or
even remotely missing and whenever Peter met fans he was always happy to talk
about anything musical including his time with yes and was grateful for the
fans interest in his work.
As I sit here writing this piece I am listening to the Yes
version of Every Little Thing which has an incredible opening guitar work out
from Peter. Really there was nothing like Peter at the time and in many ways
there still isn't He was unique and as Steve Howe said in his interview about
his early period with Yes following Peter’s departure.
“I really liked
what he played and really he did set the scene for me very well because he was
an quite an original guitarist and he did colour it with different styles”
It is however Peter the man I remember. I was thrilled to be
mentioned in Peter’s autobiography which was published in the late nineties and
in it Peter said some nice things about me and regarded me as a friend which
was a nice thing to say
I will always remember Peter as a lovely guy with a cynical
nature but the cynicism could be tinged with humour and Peter always had a keen
sense of humour.
Nobody should be under any illusions about Peter’s
contribution to Yes. He was a founder member and his guitar style and playing
was a huge part of the bands original sound. Without him the band would have
sounded an incredibly different.
Peter Brockbanks aka Peter Banks 15th
July 1947-8th March 2013
Jon Kirkman March 2013
You can buy the three Flash albums and Peter's solo album The Two Sides of Peter Banks directly from Esoteric here
http://www.esotericrecordings.com/
And you can watch an excellent and in depth interview with Peter here:
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/other/cherryredtv/interviews.htm
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